Monmouth was hit by flooding this week as a month's worth of rain fell in just a few hours.

Residents on the Rockfield Road estate woke up early on Monday morning (24th September) to find several inches of water covering the road.

A number of homes in the area were affected after a culvert, which allows water to run from the estate through to the River Monnow, became blocked and overflowed.

Fire crews and council workers were called just after 6am as flood waters reached houses in Jordan Way, Jordan Close and Cornwallis Way.

Residents, who have met with Monmouth town councillor Stephen Davis, pointed the finger at Monmouthshire County Council (MCC), who are responsible for maintaining the culvert.

"Workers came along last week and cut all the bullrushes, which is not really necessary, and just left all the cuttings behind," said Cllr Davies.

"It is these that are left to float along and block the gate."

Jennifer Evans woke up to find flood water outside her Cornwallis Way bungalow and seeping into her back garden.

"My husband went to get his van to go to work, within 10 minutes the water had come up and was coming in through the front door and back door," she said.

"It soon started coming in under the skirting board and soaked my son's bed and everything underneath it.

"It's lucky that we were up. If it had happened at 4am we would have got up to a foot of water in our house.

"The problem was all the debris and rubbish in the brook, which meant water had to go over the floodgate and not through.

"The debris is still there so if we get another big downpour it will happen again.

"It seems no-one is doing anything about it and we've got to make a stand. I've spoken to my local councillor, who agrees with me, and I am going to fight this."

Neighbours Julie and David Matthews and Christine Stevens helped clear the floodwaters and start the mopping-up operation.

"I woke up to a banging on my door," said Christine, "and saw my neighbour pointing to the floodwaters.

"The water was up my driveway but my main concern was the two bunaglows opposite as water was coming out of the front doors.

"This is the second time it's happened to me in 12 years and will happen again because they are building new houses on a floodplain.

"This road is not adopted so the drains don't get maintained and fill up when there's heavy rain."

"It was exactly the same last time," added Julie. "It wouldn't flood if the drains and the brook were maintained properly."

A spokesperson for the county council said the culvert was maintained on a regular basis.

"Considering a month's rain fell in one night, it is more to do with the sheer volume of water," he said.

"That much rainfall is always going to make things difficult.

"There were some incidents and thankfully it was not more widespread, although that is of no consolation to those affected.

"The council has been working hard to help residents alongside the fire brigade – distributing sandbags and organising temporary accommodation. We had our first call at 6.20am and were on site at 6.40am."

The spokesman encouraged anyone affected who thinks MCC can help to contact them.

Julia Meek, who lives in Jordan Way, said: "The fire brigade have been brilliant pumping all the the water out and the council even used a JCB to move the grid that was blocked.

"This has happened to us once before, about five years ago."

A fire service spokesman said crews had attended from Hereford and Worcester Fire Service and from Monmouth Fire Station.

The main priority had been to stop water getting into people's houses, he said.

"We managed to clear the affeced houses and sandbag them. There was a high volume of calls because of the rapid rainfall overnight, and we were called to the Rockfield estate and to Wyesham at about 6am," he added.

Sandbags were put down in Wyesham, where water ran off the fields, and in Tintern, where a stream was beginning to overflow.

Sunday night's downpour also caused misery for motorists, with the eastbound M48 between Magor and Chepstow being closed and flooding on the A466 near Redbrook.